John Smith

When your history reaches back as far as Hampton Roads, landmark archaeological investigations are almost to be expected. But even in the region that helped give birth to the field of historical archaeology, there are some real standouts: Jamestown Island. America’s first enduring English settlement has been the focus of archaeological probes since 1897. Two pioneering National Park Service digs led by J. C. Harrington and John L. Cotter in the 1930s and ‘50s played instrumental roles in shaping the discipline — and William M. Kelso’s Jamestown Rediscovery project not only unearthed the nation’s lost birthplace in 1996 but also ranks as its longest-running...

Related "John Smith" Articles

When your history reaches back as far as Hampton Roads, landmark archaeological investigations are almost to be expected.
But even in the region that helped give birth to the field of historical archaeology, there are some real standouts:
Jamestown...

Since pushing their first shovel into the ground 20 years ago, Jamestown archaeologists have rewritten the history of America's first permanent English settlement numerous times, beginning with the 1996 discovery of the landmark fort that most people...

Famous people, places & things
People, places and things that make Hampton Roads famous: Presidents, celebrities and more
Hampton Roads is known around the world for its people — as being from here, as a come-here, or for just passing through — as...

GLOUCESTER — Just as John Smith did 400 years ago, Gov. Terry McAuliffe arrived by boat at Werowocomoco on the banks of the York River to survey in person a land of rich history and great promise.
McAuliffe visited on Tuesday the farm owned by Bob and...

Historians say the Chesapeake Bay has changed since Capt. John Smith first landed at Jamestown four centuries ago.
And scientists say it will change again by the end of this one as a rising, warming ocean with more acidic waters carves out a different...

Robert E. Lee was many years removed from fame when -- as a young officer in the Army Corps of Engineers --he packed up and left his quarters at Fort Monroe in late October 1834.
But the report he gave when he reported for his new job at the office of...

Archaeologists probing the early James Fort kitchen where they unearthed evidence of cannibalism this past year have discovered an earlier layer of artifacts showing that — just months before the Starving Time of 1609-10 — the colonists were filling their...

Of all the natural wonders the early Jamestown colonists encountered in the New World, few loomed larger in their imaginations -- or their stomachs -- than the James River sturgeon.Capt. John Smith's first accounts of their remarkable size and abundance...

Archaeologists searching for the lost village of Powhatan have uncovered tantalizing but still inconclusive evidence suggesting that the legendary Indian leader, who ruled most of coastal Virginia when the first English settlers arrived in 1607, once...

The first time William C. Wooldridge held an antique map of Virginia, he was a young Army officer taking a meandering, homesick stroll through the streets of Heidelberg, Germany.
Catching his eye from an old print shop window, the early 1600s map based...

Has the spirit world taken up residence in your home or neighborhood? No? You sure about that? No eerie moans whistling through your hallways? No strange sightings on your local highways and byways? Nothing going bump in the deepest, darkest hours of...

More than 400 years after America’s first permanent English settlement rose from the ground, archaeologists are combining local clay, loam and black needle rush grass in an experimental effort to recreate the unique method used to construct some of the...

When a place reaches as far back as Jamestown, the dirt can teem with secrets.
Nearly every time archaeologists open a hole on this ancient stretch of riverfront land, they find a jumbled puzzle of subterranean clues reflecting every change that has...

Hampton Roads is known around the world for its people — as being from here, as a come-here, or for just passing through — as well as places and things.It's known for its Bacon (as in Nathaniel), its ham (as in Smithfield), its presidents (more than...

A pair of breeding ospreys nesting on the Virginia Institute of Marine Science water tower received names Tuesday: `Coleman' and `Bridgette.'The ospreys are having their lives documented in a live feed found here: http://bit.ly/iiLdMy. VIMS offered a...

Few patches of ground looked less promising when student archaeologists began probing the center of historic James Fort toward the end of their 2010 summer field school. Scoured out by slaves for the construction of a...

They lack the blue crab's personality, don't fight like rockfish and aren't as plentiful as menhaden.
Yet oysters are perhaps the Chesapeake Bay's most celebrated seafood.
They provided protein to settlers who arrived at Jamestown in 1607 during a...

One early English colonist described it as an "ample and faire Country." Another called it "pleasantly seated." Capt. John Smith relished his Christmas 1608 feast there so much that he touted its "good Oysters, Fish, Flesh,...

Sept. 12, 1570 Spanish Jesuits stop at Indian village of Kecoughtan en route to establishing settlement on the York River. 1597 Chief Powhatan's warriors seize Kecoughtan and install his son Pochins as chief. April 30, 1607 English settlers land at...

Engraved by Flemish artist Theodor de Bry from watercolors produced by Roanoke Island colonist John White, these images show Algonquin Indian settlements in North Carolina. Scholars believe Kecoughtan and other Powhatan villages would have been similar,...